Abstract

The electrorheology (ER) effect of ferroelectric liquid crystals is observed under shear-horizontal (SH) wave propagation. The ER effect is strongly dependent on the orientation direction of the liquid-crystal molecule. The apparent viscosity is evaluated through the numerical analysis result on the propagation characteristics of a SH wave in a trilayerstructure including a ferroelectric liquid-crystal (Chisso, CS1014) layer between two glass plates. The ER effect is examined by the relation between the orientation of smectic layers and the propagation direction of the SH wave.